302 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



In like manner, the chevron, so frequently seen on vases, 

 ceilings, and elsewhere as- an Egyptian ornament, and which 

 appears even as an architectural moulding throughout Diocle- 

 tian's palace at Spalato, along the whole entablature and on the 

 plinths of the columns, was adopted by the mediaeval architects, 

 particularly in the Norman style, together with other devices ; 



(50.) 



and the notched stones of voussoirs, so frequent in Saracenic 

 buildings, were of Eoman origin, being found in the same 

 palace of Spalato, and in other buildings of the Empire. 



78. It is thus, throughout the history of art, that one style 

 borrows from another; and the proof of talent consisted in 

 a proper adaptation of each particular feature. Those who 

 maintain that the early Greeks derived nothing in art from 

 foreign nations, seem to ignore the influence universally exer- 

 cised by the more advanced on those who have made less 

 progress in it. Yet all history and experience proclaim this, 

 as well as many of the Greeks themselves. The shield of 

 Achilles is described from no Greek model ; and, like similar 

 works of the Homeric age, it was probably derived from some 

 work of the Sidonians, who, like the Egyptians and others, 

 had excelled in various branches of art long before they 

 became known to the Greeks. And it was to their contact 

 with other people that the Ionians were indebted for an earlier 

 advance in art, compared to their brethren of Greece. 



79. Indeed, it is impossible to look at the ornamental 

 designs on many of the bronze and other objects found in 

 Assyria, Etruria, and other countries, without at once per- 



